


Mercy Is For The Guilty

by kethni



Series: Trinity Chronicles [4]
Category: American Gothic (TV 1995)
Genre: F/M, Sequel, request
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:35:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22066381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kethni/pseuds/kethni
Relationships: Lucas Buck/Selena Coombs
Series: Trinity Chronicles [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1581667
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	Mercy Is For The Guilty

Selena shivered a little as she opened the front door to check the weather. There was a bite in the air that she hadn’t expected. In New York city or Chicago folks wouldn’t have noticed, heck maybe they have thought it was sultry, but here in North Carolina it felt almost like winter.

‘What’re you doing, girl?’ her daddy demanded.

Selena rolled her eyes. ‘I’m just about to leave, Daddy.’

‘You best not be going to the sheriff’s station.’

She shut the door and took her jacket down from the peg. ‘You know I am.’

He opened the kitchen door and glowered at her. ‘I could throw you out. You ain’t no little girl anymore.’

Selena put her hand on her hip. ‘You say that like it’s a threat,’ she said.

‘You mind your goddamn tone!’

‘If you want me to leave, Daddy, I will,’ Selena said. ‘But it wouldn’t be for long since I know that this house was in mama’s name and she left it to me.’

Her daddy gritted his teeth. ‘You’re still a little girl and I am your father.’

She tipped her head to the side. ‘Well, _father_ , I want to go to college. Extra credit and extra curriculars will help with that. Working at the sheriff’s station will help with that.’

‘Who do you think is gonna pay for your college?’ her daddy sneered.

Selena shrugged. ‘I don’t know, Daddy, I can only plan for so many things at once. Why do you hate the idea so much? It ain’t like I’m gonna get my extra-curriculars making moonshine with Lyle Bennet.’

Her daddy shook his head. ‘Sheriff Buck ain’t someone a young girl should be around.’

She pushed back her hair. ‘Lucas won’t let his daddy hurt me.’

‘Don’t put your faith in that boy neither,’ her daddy said. ‘He cares about himself and nobody else.’

‘We done?’ she asked. ‘Can I go now?’

‘Don’t come crying to me if you get yourself inconvenienced by Sheriff Buck,’ he warned.

Selena turned away. ‘Plenty of men and boys have tried to “inconvenience” me before, Daddy,’ she said. ‘I never come crying to you yet, and somehow I survived.’

***

She drove herself to the sheriff’s station and parked up in the lot nearby. She didn’t see Lucas’s car but that wasn’t surprising. He wasn’t one for hiding his light under a bushel, and surely not his car. She was a little early as she headed in the sheriff’s station. The truth was she was equal parts nervous and excited. She had worked little jobs before but nothing much challenging. “Challenging” was hard to come by. Lord knew that school hadn’t managed it for quite some time. That was one thing that surely wasn’t missing when she spent time around Lucas. Of course, with Lucas “challenging” and “downright dangerous” went hand in hand.

When it came to tangling with Sheriff Buck, she had no particular drive to challenge him unless she was helping Lucas out. The fact was, that Selena wasn't much minded to antagonism for no reason. Playing nice with Lucas’s daddy was something she knew that Lucas would like as little as her own daddy did, but she needed to do it. Maybe she came by a pragmatic streak from her momma, maybe not. Whatever the root, it was there, and Selena wasn’t minded to ignore it in favour of some romantic devotion. Not when she needed Sheriff Buck's goodwill and so far she'd given him no reason to have it. 

The deputy on duty looked up when she walked in. Looked up, looked over, and looked well pleased. Men. Lord. How did they ever rule the world when most of them were as dumb as a box of rocks?

‘Well ain’t you a pretty sight,’ he said. ‘What’s your problem, little lady?’

‘Nothing yet,’ she said, putting her hand on the little swing gate. ‘I’m gonna be here the next couple months. Helping y’all out with your paperwork and such.’

The deputy sucked his teeth. ‘You’re gonna be working here?’

She shrugged. ‘It’s all arranged.’

He moved closer. ‘Miss, I know you might be thinking that the sheriff’s department is all handsome men in uniform and the like but… I don’t think this is a job for a young lady. You be best off selling dresses in the store or looking after little children at the school.’

She took a deep, slow breath. ‘If I ever thought that all men in uniform were handsome then you have _certainly_ convinced me otherwise.’

‘Uhhh…’ he began.

‘Carl, I do hope you ain’t monopolising our new recruit,’ Sheriff Buck drawled.

They both turned, both of them tensing but for very different reasons.

‘I hope I’m not late, Sheriff,’ Selena said politely.

He shook his head. ‘Right on time, Miss Coombs. I do admire a woman who is punctual.’ He opened the little gate for her. ‘Come through to the back. There are some bits of paperwork to fill in. All very dull I know but I’m a man who likes things to be just so.’

She gave him a sideways look as she stepped past him. ‘I have to say I wouldn’t have figured you for that nature of a man.’

He had Lucas’s wicked grin. ‘Oh, you might be surprise on my nature as a man, Miss Coombs.’

***

‘What’re you playing at?’

Selena looked up from the papers she was filing. The room she had been sequestered into was little more than a closet, but she had a tiny window and each of the deputies had trailed in with offerings of refreshments and conversation. The first was generally more welcome than the second.

‘Good morning Deputy Buck,’ she said. ‘I’m filing these arrest records. Seems like the department has been missing some administrative support for a little while.’

‘Seeing you play innocent makes me wonder how I ever let someone like you in my life,’ he said.

She rolled her eyes. ‘That’s real cute, Lucas.’ 

Lucas stepped forward and shut the door behind him. ‘Why’re you here, Selena?’

She sat back in her chair. ‘I need extra credits for college.’

He shook his head. ‘You are deliberately putting yourself within arm’s length of my daddy for _college credits._ ’

‘I ain’t here on your behalf,’ she pointed out. ‘Your daddy has only ever come after me as a way of getting to you. If he had some pressing hunger to hurt me or press his attentions on me, he certainly wouldn’t have to wait until I happened to come and work here.’

Lucas stared at her. ‘You are poking an alligator and calling it a turtle.’

Selena tilted her head. ‘Then give me another option, Lucas.’

‘If you have _asked_ me, I might’ve had one,’ he snapped.

She folded her arms. ‘I told you that I needed credits.’

He rolled his eyes. ‘You also told me that your daddy wouldn’t pay for college. So what’s all the rush for credits? What do you need college for anyway? It ain’t like you’re gonna be off to Raleigh working as a big city lawyer or anything.’

‘I told you I want to be a teacher!’

‘How does the detail matter?’

She was about to answer when the door was pulled open. Sheriff Buck lounged in the doorway.

‘Lucas, Miss Coombs is here to _work_. I hope you ain’t harassing her,’ he said with a smirk. ‘I am so sorry, Miss Coombs, no matter what I do the boy is like a dog humpin’ at a mailman’s leg.’

Lucas put his hands on his hips. ‘Did you want something, Sir?’

Sheriff Buck looked him in the eyes. ‘There’s a few things I want, boy, and you ain’t helping me with any of them.’

‘I could say the same,’ Lucas said.

Sheriff Buck narrowed his eyes. ‘If you’re done flirtin’ with the staff, there’s a nuisance call out at the Golan place. Take Ray-Ray with you.’

Lucas looked at Selena. ‘I been meaning to ask if you still got that little token of affection I gave you two months ago.’

She looked at him for a long minute. ‘I sure did,’ she said. ‘It was real sweet of you.’

Sheriff Buck rolled his eyes. ‘I s’pose we should all be grateful you don’t feel the need to mark your territory with some action more asocial than trinkets.’

Selena crossed her legs. ‘If you’re both done measuring your _manliness_ , I would like to get back to work. It’s my first day and I’m _trying_ to make a good impression.’ 

***

She supposed that she should have checked her tires before she set off driving home. That would’ve been the _mature_ thing to do most like. The type of thing that girls who wore glasses and flat shoes would do. Selena hadn’t done that. Now she was halfway home, the car was pulling to the right, and the steering wheel was vibrating. Selena wasn’t the kind of girl to check her tires before she got in the car, but she _was_ the kind of girl who read up on how to tell if you had a slow puncture and the like.

She pulled over to the side of the road and got out of the car. Time was that one of the menfolk passing by would stop and help, but apparently that time wasn’t now. Her momma would have been rolling in her grave at the discourtesy.

Selena checked the tires. Front tire on the driver’s side was almost flat. She walked around to the trunk and popped it. She wasn’t much looking forward to changing a tire by herself, but she’d done more difficult things and them by herself.

She carried the jack around to the front of the car and was contemplating her options when she heard a car pull in behind her. That could go either way. Lord knew there were too few men who were _actually_ good and too many who just thought they were. Give her a man who owned being bad. They didn’t tend to think they were owed a woman just for basic human decency.

‘Can I offer you some assistance, Miss Coombs?’

Well, _shit_. Suddenly bad wasn’t looking so appealing. She turned around. ‘Sheriff Buck. Kind of you to stop by.’

He put his hand on the roof of her car and crossed his leg at the ankle. ‘Flat tire, is it?’

Selena tilted her head. ‘Sheriff Buck, did you let down my tire?’

He grinned at her. It was the same grin that she’d had from Lucas when she called him on some of his nonsense. She’d seen it too many times.

‘You got a spare in the trunk?’ he asked.

‘Surely do,’ she said, leaning back against the car.

He opened the trunk and took out the tire in one easy movement. ‘It is disheartening that there isn’t a line of men queued up to change your tire.’

Selena folded her arms. ‘The quality of menfolk in Trinity is not what I have been led to expect,’ she agreed.

Sheriff Buck carried the tire over. ‘I hope there’s a few of us dragging up the average.’ He put it down. ‘How’d you come to meet Lucas in the first place?’

She shrugged. ‘I had an altercation with a young man. We disagreed on whether or not him giving me a ride in the rain entitled him to lay hands on me. Lucas come by and… ensured nothing worse happened.’

Sheriff Buck nodded. ‘Lucky for you,’ he said. He jacked up her car. ‘Luckier for Lucas I’m thinking.’

Selena took a step back. ‘I may be young, Sheriff, and I may be pretty, but I ain’t so stupid that I believe every conversation we have ain’t about Lucas one way or another.’

Sheriff Buck nodded. ‘I’ve had conversations with him about you. You’re an interesting girl, Miss Coombs. All that business with your momma dying.’

She stiffened. ‘What business? She was sick and she died.’

‘That’s one way of looking at it,’ he said. ‘Mercy killin’ that’s another way. Interestin’ term that. Mercy. Never quite sat right with me, that word.’

Selena set her jaw. ‘Person in terrible pain. Gonna die in terrible pain. Instead she dies peaceful. What’s not merciful about that?’

He tilted his head. ‘Mercy is for the guilty. The innocent don’t want mercy, they want justice.’

Selena snorted. ‘You need to read your bible, Sheriff. We all come out of the womb guilty of original sin. Every baby lives by God’s mercy.’

He smiled. ‘There I was forgetting you were a preacher’s daughter.’ He took off her tire. ‘The trouble with Lucas is that he’s impatient.’

‘Among other things,’ Selena said dryly.

‘He thinks he’s a big man now,’ Sheriff Buck said. ‘He thinks he’s ready to replace me. He ain’t. Him and me bumping up our antlers, that’s fine and normal. Healthy even. I did it with my daddy. One day Lucas will do it with his son.’

Selena looked down at him. She couldn’t guess at his age, but she was sure that he was strong. She saw the muscles in his arms move when he carried the tire and his thighs flex when he knelt down. There were no age lines on his face and no grey in his hair. She couldn’t help but agree that maybe Lucas was impatient in thinking his daddy’s time was over.

‘Three quarters of American literature is boys and their daddies,’ she said sourly. ‘Of course, that probably because three quarters of American literature is written by men.’

Sheriff Buck replaced the tire and stood up, dusting off his hands. ‘Lucas has a different approach to things than I do,’ he said. ‘I’m what you might call… hands on.’

He put his hands on either side of the car, trapping Selena against it as he leaned it.

‘Oh,’ Selena said. ‘How tiresome. What a disappointment.’

He pursed his lips. ‘I’ve heard all about your famous little knife, Miss Coombs, but that don’t feel like a knife pressed up against me.’

‘It’s not,’ she said. ‘Lucas forgot my last birthday, but when he did eventually make it up to me it was with a sweet derringer. Such a cute little thing. It fits right in my purse. Hell, I had in my pocket when you walked over here, and you didn’t even notice.’

Sheriff Buck nodded. ‘That ain’t anywhere near my heart you’re pressing it.’

Selena shrugged. ‘It’s only a .22 and you’re a big, powerful man. I got no way of guessing if it’d get all the way through to your heart. But what I’m aiming at, well, there ain’t no ribs in the way, and only some cloth. Little as my derringer is, I reckon it’s big enough to put you to some inconvenience if I fire.’

He nodded. ‘Here’s what I was planning to say: I’m hands on, I do my business all by myself. Lucas though, he has allies. That boy has a real eye for talent. I guess he must’ve gotten it from his momma because it surely didn’t come from me.’

‘Talent like me?’ Selena asked.

‘Exactly.’ He licked his lips. ‘Before I continue, would you be amenable to me backing up a step? You can move your little gun and I can stop wondering if you might sneeze and forever ensure Lucas is an only child.’

Selena considered it. ‘I’m still holding it.’

He nodded and stepped back. He looked at the gun she was holding. ‘Probably would’ve killed me if you aimed for the heart.’

‘Good to know,’ Selena said.

He put his hands on his hips. ‘All Lucas is thinkin’ about is him winnin.’ That’s fine. But I got more to think about. I got to think about him winnin’ too. See, short term thinkin’ would be, well, Lucas has allies. Gettin’ rid of them is gonna weaken him and that will help me.’

She raised an eyebrow. ‘Long term thinking being what?’

‘Gettin’ rid of them, of you, is gonna weaken him. Long term I don’t want that. Trinity doesn’t want that. Trinity needs Lucas strong and smart when I’m not around.’ He ran his fingers through his hair. ‘Muscles. Guns. Those are easy to replace. You? I don’t know. Truth is, I’ve been doin’ this a long time, Miss Coombs, and I ain’t never seen someone quite like you. I am real reluctant to crush something rare and unusual in case another one doesn’t come along.’

Selena chewed her lower lip. ‘You want me gone but not dead, that about the size of it?’

He picked up the damaged tire. ‘You’re working at the sheriff’s station for extra credit to get you into college. That right?’

‘Yes, Sir,’ she said. ‘I ever find a way to pay for college.’

He chuckled. ‘You going to North Carolina State?’

‘That’s my plan.’ She didn’t ask anything else. She wasn’t about to let him off easy.

Sheriff Buck carried the flat tire around to the trunk and put it inside. ‘You should be safe to drive now.’

‘Thank you kindly,’ Selena said.

He returned to her, standing too close as ever. ‘Let me have any paperwork. We’ll get everything sorted out.’

She looked up at him. ‘Or you’ll crush me like a rare butterfly?’

Sheriff Buck touched her chin. ‘Only if you force my hand. Be a terrible shame if you do.’

‘I’ll be it in mind,’ she said.

She watched him walk back to his cruiser and open the door. She got in her own car, but waited until he drove away before he started the engine.

The End


End file.
